You are making decisions today that will shape what your organization looks like two years from now. Those decisions are your leadership. And in public child welfare and nonprofit organizations, where the work is high-stakes, emotionally demanding, and chronically under-resourced, the accumulated weight of those daily decisions either builds organizations that can sustain the mission or quietly dismantles them. Read about more about that here.

When leaders recognize organizational challenges but delay action, the cost compounds. Here is what the research says, and what child welfare leaders can do instead.